Never Will
by SnarkyPenname
Summary: One-shot I plan to expand into a story later. Rose/Ten (A/N: On hiatus until Doctor Who is finished. When I write the rest of it, I want it to be canon so I'm holding off until the series ends.)
1. Chapter 1

**"Nobody said it was easy**

**It's such a shame for us to part**

**Nobody said it was easy**

**No one ever said it would be this hard**

**Oh, take me back to the start."**

**-The Scientist, Coldplay.**

* * *

There was more than one way to die. Rose knew that. Still, as she clasped the Doctor's hand, watching the life pour out of him, blooming red on the small of his back, she knew this was it. The last generation. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"It won't be long now, Rose."

"I know."

"You won't want to stay for this," he gasped between breaths.

"You're wrong. You're so wrong."

"I don't want you to stay for this."

"Yes you do," Rose whispered, wiping a stray tear away. "Not that it matters. I've made up my mind. I'm staying right here."

"After... when it's over, you won't remember this. Not until Bad Wolf Bay. It will be as if we never met. You understand why it has to be this way. We were never supposed to meet. Not this early. Jimmy Stone. He was never supposed to exist. Not as me."

She shook her head. "I can't just forget you."

"You have to, Rose. We've put the time stream at risk just by meeting out of order. It's not forever. I promise this it isn't."

She nodded, watching his chest fall in shallow rises. "I suppose it isn't really my fault. After all, you have incredible hair. No reasonable person would blame me. It's always the gingers you have to look out for."

The Doctor smiled, but it was half-hearted. "You shouldn't have to watch me die."

She squeezed his fingers. "I promised you forever, yeah?"

"Yeah," he said.

"Well, like it or not, I've made my choice. And I'm never going to leave you, Doctor. They keep tryin' to split us up. They never will."

"I love you Rose Tyler."

"I love you, my Doctor."

Her lips met his, and when her eyes opened, there was nothing but gold dust.

* * *

BAD WOLF BAY:

Rose stared into the eyes of her Doctor, the man she had always loved, loved before she even knew it. Time and time again, they had been separated. The memories rushed back at her all at once. She remembered everything. Jimmy Stone. John Smith. It all made sense now. He wasn't alone and he didn't even know it. He couldn't, she decided. One day she hoped he would understand.

She kissed the other Doctor, tears streaming from her eyes. She looked back, just once. Long enough to see her old Doctor fade away in the silly blue box they had made a home inside of. The Doctor grabbed her hand. Rose squeezed it back tightly.

"I have something to tell you," Rose said. "And it's quite a long story."


	2. Chapter 2

**"Come up to meet you**

**Tell you I'm sorry**

**You don't know how lovely you are**

**I had to find you**

**To tell you I need you**

**To tell you I set you apart."**

**-The Scientist, Coldplay**

* * *

The man in the alleyway was gone at once. There was a familiarity about him. Something keen about his presence. As if, it was silly, she had known him in another life. She walked back to the alley, into the shadows where the man had gone. He had sounded drunk at the time, but maybe he had been hurt. He hadn't sounded normal. Not for someone who should've been celebrating.

She stepped forward back into the snow. There was no man, but something more peculiar caught her eye. Something that puzzled her to no end. Carved in the slush were two puzzling words. Bad wolf.

She found herself rocked back on her heels. A brilliant pain bursting from her head. Flickers of memories. Thoughts she'd filed away. Things she had to forget, but couldn't. Impossible, mad, extraordinary things. "No," she said, almost instinctively. "You can't remember. You can't remember. You can't remember." She fumbled for the TARDIS necklace in her jacket. She found it resting next to a watch beneath her left pocket. A failsafe. Something the Doctor had engineered if she started to remember. She slipped it around her neck and closed her eyes. And as it touched her skin, it faded into nothing. No one would recognize the piece of time-lord technology, slipped beneath her shirt, resting just below her clavicle, but she could still feel it's weight. A distant reminder of what she had to forget.

Then, without another word, she turned back toward her house. It wasn't time. No, not yet.

* * *

The first time the Doctor saw Rose, it was a flash. A glitch really. Like the sky sneezed her image into existence. It was only for an instant. He couldn't have even been sure she'd been there. But her voice froze him. "Doctor!" she had screamed. And then, she was gone.

The second time, he had been with Amy and Rory. He hadn't even had time to blink. She had fallen through the air and he scrambled to catch her. "Rose?" he said. But it couldn't have been right. She was too young. Seventeen or so, by the look of it. This wasn't right. She shouldn't be here.

"Year?" she demanded.

"Rose? What? I- what?"

"The year! The bloody year! Oh, I hope I landed right," she said, peeking out of the TARDIS. "Overshot it again!" she fumed, fumbling with the device on her hand. It looked like a dimension cannon, but not quite. At any rate, it was alien technology, she wasn't supposed to know about. They hadn't even met.

"You can't be here. It's impossible."

Rose looked up, actually taking in her surroundings for the first time. A wave of panic came over here. "Oh, dear. You haven't met me yet," she said with realization. "Hold on, I mean, you've met me. But you haven't met me again." She clamped her hand around her mouth. "I've said too much. Sorry, not supposed to talk about that."

"Wait. Rose. Tell me what's going on."

"Doctor, who's this," Amy said, peeking around the corner. But the Doctor wouldn't answer. He was stunned. Frozen in place.

Rose felt a pull in her naval. She was being called back. A gold light rushed around her, and she could feel herself slipping out of this time. She rushed forward, taking the Doctor's hand. "I know it doesn't make sense now, but it will," she said. And then, she was kissing him, and before her image faded away, he could hear the two words that would never fail to haunt him.

"Bad wolf."


	3. Chapter 3

"**Happiness is like the old man told me **

**Look for it, but you'll never find it all **

**Let it go, live your life and leave it **

**Then one day, wake up and she'll be home."**

**-Happiness, The Fray**

* * *

When her vision came back, Rose was standing beside the Doctor. The older Doctor with mousy brown hair and a bowtie. Not ginger, but the hair was definitely sexy. They were in front of her house, cloaked only by the shadows that curved under the brilliant rays of sun. It was too early, she thought.

"I won't even be up." Rose piped up. The Doctor jumped at her voice, smiling when he realized it was her.

"No, I didn't think so," he smiled. "Just getting ready to potentially put the whole time stream at risk."

"It was meant to be this way," Rose said, reassuringly. "The world isn't going to fall through a crack in the TARDIS if we bend a few rules. I should know. Had the vortex in my head once. Or will have. Still do, kinda. Long-"

"Story. Yes, I know," he said with a smile.

"Spoilers."

"So you're the one who taught River that!"

She zipped her lips with a smile.

His hand grabbed hers. "I've missed you Rose Tyler."

"I've missed you too Doctor. Don't worry so much. We'll be together soon."

And then she was gone.

* * *

This time when Rose landed, things were, well, crazy. There were no flashing lights or sirens, no screeching sounds as the TARDIS shifting end to end -none of the usual madness. But there was, however, an angry redheaded bride shouting at her Doctor.

"Where am I?" the woman shouted. "I demand you tell me where I am right now!"

"Inside the TARDIS," the Doctor tried to answer. He hadn't yet seen her, and she knew she should probably say something, but she was too amused to break up their fighting.

"The what?" she asked like he was barmy.

"The TARDIS," he tried again, turning around to check the console, still missing her in his line of vision.

"TARDIS?"

"Yes, the TARDIS."

"TARDIS?!"

"Yes! Yes the TARDIS!"

"Well now you're just saying things," said Donna, exasperated. "What the bloody hell is this thing?"

"Time and relative dimensions in space," Rose finally piped up. "'s a space ship."

"Who the hell are you? Where did she come from? Space ship?! Are you bleeding barmy?" Donna yelled.

"Rose. I- what? How are you here?"

"Enough 'whats' spaceman! Take me home!"

The Doctor ignored her. "You can't be here. No. No. No. You're too young. We haven't even met."

"We've met before," Rose said. "You just don't remember it. Wibbly-wobbly, etcetera, etcetera."

"Is this Nerys? This has Nerys written all over it. That two-faced bint's finally gotten me back!"

"Who's Nerys?" Rose asked, trying to calm the bride down.

"His best friend!"

"Hold on, wait a minute," the Doctor said. "Why are you dressed like that? And how are you here?"

"I'm going ten pin bowling! What do you think! I was halfway up the isle!" Donna shouted. "I'm missing my wedding!"

"Before we met, you met me. You were Jimmy Stone, at least, that's who I'll remember you as. One day before we meet at the shop, you'll have to erase it from my mind."

"This isn't- We'll tear a hole in the universe, Rose."

Her eyes glowed gold. "I am the universe."

"What did you do to her?! Did you make her an alien too?" Donna nearly screeched.

"That's impossible, I took it out of you!"

Her eyes shifted back to normal. "Not all of it. What's left won't hurt me. It's just fragments scattered across time. It will fade, but for now, it's what I use to find you when I jump. When I absorbed the time vortex, I became a fixed point in time. So there are places in history I have to be at. Since I jump ship in two years and get myself landed in an alternate universe, I have to visit them now, while I'm still in this universe. Me meeting you now is a fixed point. I can't control it. We'll tear a hole in the universe if I'm not here."

"Sorry to break up your alien reunion, but GET ME TO THE CHURCH!"

"Right!" the Doctor said. "Where are we going?"

"Saint Mary's at Chiswick! Make it snappy spaceboy! I'm getting married right now!"


End file.
